


Road Trip (I have no idea what to name this rn)

by grayve4



Category: Original Work
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Road Trips, Slow To Update, honestly idk what to put here lol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:35:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28391781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grayve4/pseuds/grayve4
Summary: When Farren Miller's best friend is suddenly not replying to their messages, Farren drives 31 hours to check on him. (also kinda dont know what to put here rn im so bad at this)





	Road Trip (I have no idea what to name this rn)

**Author's Note:**

> TW: implied dubcon

Farren  
The vibration of my phone against the wooden desk rudely interrupts me as usual. The room darkens when I pause the game I’m playing to pick my phone up. A smile comes to my face when I see the Instagram notification banner.   
“@park_evs22: u better not still be playing minecraft Farren it's 2 am.”   
Parker and I met almost 2 years ago through a group chat we were both in on Instagram, he messaged me first about the photography on my account and we just hit it off. He’s the only friend I’ve truly felt connected with and we’ve never even met in real life. I’m contemplating my answer when the screen comes to life with an incoming video call from Parker.   
“Hey!” He says with a smile.  
“Alright you caught me, of course I’m still playing Minecraft. Am I really that predictable?”  
“Farren,” Parker replies to my confession, drawing out the n sound. His tone is accusatory but his wide smile shows he’s joking. “You really shouldn’t be staying up this late.”  
“Hey! Hypocrite! You’re awake too!”   
“Yeah but that’s totally different.” I roll my eyes at his sarcasm.   
“What are you doing that’s so different?” I tease.   
“I was just-” His response is cut off by the sound of a door opening. “Oh shit sorry I have to go,” The bright smile has disappeared completely and his tone is hushed. I silently nod in response before the call ends. That’s been happening more and more lately. We used to call almost every day, but now it’s once a week at best. I’m starting to think he’s getting sick of me or something. I’m not sure what’s going on with him but I’m starting to worry. We still text everyday but our conversations keep getting shorter. Maybe he is just sick of me talking nonstop. I’ve never known when to shut up, but I thought that he understood that. That’s why I’ve never had many friends. Everyone has always told me I’m too loud and annoying. But not Parker. He really is the best friend I’ve had since elementary school, but now I’m scared he’s drifting away from me. 

Parker  
I end the call with Farren as soon as I hear the door open. I didn’t think Nate would be home tonight. Before I turn around to greet him I plaster a smile onto my face, making sure it reaches the dark circles under my eyes.  
“What are you doing awake?” He says, not even bothering with a greeting. As he walks closer I can smell the nauseating cigarette smoke bleeding from him.   
“I couldn’t sleep,” My reply is mostly true. When I do sleep, it’s riddled with nightmares and sleep paralysis. It’s gotten to the point where I just avoid sleeping. On nights where Nate is staying out all night doing god knows what, staying awake is easy. I usually just talk to Farren or binge watch some random show. But when he's home, I just lay awake in bed. I don’t want him to worry about me.   
“Hm,” He hums in response. “I bet I know how to tire you out,” He says with a smirk I know too well.  
“I- I don’t know I’m not really in the mood,”  
“C’mon,” He disregards my discomfort and grabs my hand. The smell of smoke burns my nostrils as he leads me to our bedroom. 

The pink sunrise peeks through the curtains. The sound of Nate’s alarm going off tells me it’s 6 am. My eyes close and I pretend to be asleep when I hear him start to wake up. The weight shifts on the bed and his dry lips press a kiss to my forehead. I slowly open my eyes and smile softly at him.   
“Good morning baby,” His gravelly voice gives me goosebumps.  
“Good morning,” I rub my eyes, hoping I don’t look too sleep deprived. The bed creaks as Nate rolls out of the bed, stretching his long limbs. When he goes into the bathroom, I power on my phone to be greeted with Farren’s goodnight message. Of course they sent it at 4 am. They’re the only person I know with a sleep schedule as bad as mine. I send a quick good morning text, knowing they won’t be awake until noon.   
Once we’ve both woken up fully, Nate suggests we go out for breakfast.   
“Yeah sure, where do you want to go?”  
“It's a surprise,” He says in a sing-song voice. By the time we both get dressed and get into his car, it’s 8 am. My leg bounces as I look out the window during the silent drive. After about 10 minutes of driving we arrive at a park I’ve never been to. I look at Nate with confusion in my eyes.  
“How are we going to have breakfast here?”  
He pulls out a grocery bag from the backseat. “We’re gonna have a picnic,” He ruffles his red hair and takes my hand, guiding me further into the grass. We settle on an old blanket in a beautiful part of the park with a view of the morning light filtering through the trees. Nate takes 2 pre-made sandwiches in plastic containers from the bag. It’s not a surprise that he didn’t make something himself. Nate’s a horrible cook, he somehow burns everything he touches. We sit in comfortable silence as we eat. I’m engrossed by the landscape when I notice the now familiar burn of cigarette smoke in my lungs. I’ve tried telling Nate that I don’t like when he smokes around me but he does it anyways. He starts random small talk that I’m not really paying attention to. He talks for a few minutes before going quiet. This brings me out of my thoughts and I glance at him. His dark eyes are staring into me.  
‘Huh? Sorry I got distracted, what were you saying?”   
“I do all this for you and you don’t even listen to me?! What the hell is wrong with you?” His eyebrows are furrowed with anger. He flicks his cigarette butt into the grass behind us.   
“I-I’m sorry I didn’t mean to! I just zoned out!” I shrink away from him slightly. “I really appreciate this and all you do for me I swear,”   
He grunts and lights another cigarette without saying anything. We continue to sit in silence but this time it's thick with tension.  
We sit there for another hour, occasionally starting conversations about random things. Somehow, Nate has gone through 6 cigarettes just while we were sitting here. I would comment on this but he’s already gotten mad at me and I don’t want to give him another reason. We start packing all of our stuff back up and try to get all the stray pieces of trash. I stand up to stretch and see smoke behind us. But this time it’s not the cigarette smoke I’ve grown familiar with. It’s the smoke that haunts my sleep. It sends me back to that night I looked out the window at my house and saw that same smoke pouring from the windows. The same smoke that filled my lungs as I lunged towards the house screaming for my parents. Nate shakes my shoulders and I realize I’m coughing.   
“Oh my god. Fire.” My voice is raspy and quiet. Nate takes the extra plastic water bottles and pours them over the grass.  
“Would you calm down, it wasn’t even on fire! It was just a little smoke. You’re so dramatic.” Nate rolls his eyes when he turns back to me. I’m still frozen in place, stuck in the memories of the fire that killed my parents. I was sleeping over with a friend that lived across the street. I was only 6 years old.   
“Oh my fucking god. Lets go!” Nate is practically dragging me back to the car. I snap out of it enough to get into the car and I can practically feel the annoyance coming off of Nate. I mutter an apology before he starts the car. Nate was right, the “fire” was just a little bit of smoke from his cigarette butts, but it was enough to send me crashing into the past. My lack of sleep probably didn’t help, but that's why I can’t sleep.


End file.
